Perspectives international

Urgent warning: The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity
Members of Israeli Academe
Dear Friends,
The following is a petition which is getting organized by members of the Israeli academe. I think it speaks for itself. While not condoning inhuman crimes cynically perpetrated by extremist Palestinians against civilians in Israel in the name of so-called freedom fighting, the official response of the current Israeli government often becomes a version of State Terrorism, and rather than directed at stopping the circle of bloodshed seems intent on increasing it for reasons mentioned in the petition below. It is not easy for an Israeli to sign this text. If we did, it is to raise our voice and your conscience to help stopping this snowball process leading the whole area into the abyss of senseless violence.
For better days,
A. Oz
Professor Avraham Oz
Department of Theatre
University of Haifa
Mount Carmel, 31905 Haifa, Israel
Telefax: +972-3-5609627
Email: avitaloz@research.haifa.ac.il
Urgent warning: The Israeli government may be contemplating crimes against humanity.
We, members of Israeli academe, are horrified by US buildup of aggression towards Iraq and by the Israeli political leadership’s enthusiastic support for it.
We are deeply worried by indications that the “fog of war” could be exploited by the Israeli government to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people, up to full-fledged ethnic cleansing.
The Israeli ruling coalition includes parties that promote “transfer” of the Palestinian population as a solution to what they call “the demographic problem”. Politicians are regularly quoted in the media as suggesting forcible expulsion, most recently MKs Michael Kleiner and Benny Elon, as reported on Yediot Ahronot website on September 19, 2002. In a recent interview in Ha’aretz, Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon described the Palestinians as a “cancerous manifestation” and equated the military actions in the Occupied Territories with “chemotherapy”, suggesting that more radical “treatment” may be necessary. Prime Minister Sharon has backed this “assessment of reality”. Escalating racist demagoguery concerning the Palestinian citizens of Israel may indicate the scope of the crimes that are possibly being contemplated.
We call upon the International Community to pay close attention to events that unfold within Israel and in the Occupied Territories, to make it absolutely clear that crimes against humanity will not be tolerated, and to take concrete measures to prevent such crimes from taking place.
Signatories, as of the 23 Sept 2002, morning:
Prof. Zach Adam | Rehovot |
Prof. Colman Altman | Haifa |
Dr. Janina Altman | Haifa |
Tammy Amiel-Houser | Tel Aviv |
Chaya Amir | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Shmuel Amir | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Daniel Amit | Jerusalem/Rome |
Yali Amit | Chicago, Illinois |
Dr. Meir Amor | Montreal |
Dr. Yonathan (Jon) Anson | Beer Sheva |
Prof. Shalom Baer | Jerusalem |
Dan Bar-On | Beer Sheva |
Dr. Avner Ben-Amos | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Matania Ben-Artzi | Jerusalem |
Prof. Linda Ben-Zvi | Tel Aviv |
Avi Berg | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Louise Bethlehem | Hod Hasharon |
Prof. Anat Bilezki | Tel Aviv |
Uri Bitan | Haifa |
Prof. Daniel Boyarin | Berkeley |
Prof. Victoria Buch | Jerusalem |
Smadar Carmon | Toronto |
Dr. Nicole Cohen-Addad | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Uri Davis | Sakhnin |
Athena Elizabeth DeRasmo | Haifa |
Prof. Aharon Eviatar | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Ovadia Ezra | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Emmanuel Farjoun | Jerusalem |
Pnina Firestone | Jerusalem |
Elizabeth Freund | Jerusalem |
Gadi Geiger | Cambridge, MA |
Dr. Amira Gelblum | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Rachel Giora | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Anat Goldrat-First | Netanya |
Dr. Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Neve Gordon | Beer Sheva |
Dr. Yerah Gover | New York |
Prof. Charles W. Greenbaum | Jerusalem |
Dr. Lev Grinberg | Beer Sheva |
Ran HaCohen | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Uri Hadar | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Galit Hasan-Rokem | Jerusalem |
Dr. Sara Helman | Beer Sheva |
Prof. Hanna Herzog | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Ze’ev Herzog | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Hannan Hever | Jerusalem |
Dr. Tikva Honig-Parnass | Jerusalem |
Shirly Houser | Tel Aviv |
Tal Itzhaki | Haifa |
Prof. Eva Jablonka | Tel Aviv |
Andrea Jacobs | Austin, Texas |
Dr. Devorah Kalekin-Fishman | Haifa |
Aya Kaniuk | Jerusalem |
Prof. Jacob Katriel | Haifa |
Prof. Tamar Katriel | Haifa |
Prof. Baruch Kimmerling | Jerusalem |
Dr. Haggai Kupermintz | Boulder, Colorado |
Dr. Ron Kuzar | Haifa |
Dr. Ariela Lazar | Evanston |
Prof. Micah Leshem | Haifa |
Erez Levkovitz | Jerusalem |
Prof. Rene Levy | Lausanne |
Dr. Orly Lubin | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Ruchama Marton | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Anat Matar | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Paul Mendes-Flohr | Jerusalem |
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom | Jerusalem |
Menucha Moravitz | Ramat-Gan |
Regev Nathansohn | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Avraham Oz | Haifa |
Dr. Ilan Pappe | Haifa |
Gabriel Piterberg | UCLA |
Shakhar Rahav | Berkeley |
Dr. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin | Beer Sheva |
Prof. Zvi Razi | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Tanya Reinhart | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Fanny-Michaela Reisin | Berlin |
Prof. Freddie Rokem | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Henry Rosenfeld | Haifa |
Dr. Maya Rosenfeld | Jerusalem |
Ouzi Rotem | Philadelphia, PA |
Dr. Hannah Safran | Haifa |
Tami Sarfatti | UCLA, CA |
Dr. Nita Schechet | Jerusalem |
Hillel Schocken | Tel Aviv |
Ruben Seroussi | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Erella Shadmi | Beit Berl |
Prof. Nomi Shir | Beer Sheva |
Dr. Miriam Shlesinger | Tel Aviv |
Aharon Shabtai | Tel Aviv |
Orly Soker | Sapir-Jerusalem |
Nurit Steinfeld | Jerusalem |
Roman Vater | Tel Aviv |
Dr. Roy Wagner | Tel-Aviv |
Dr. Michael Yogev | Haifa |
Kim Yuval | Tel Aviv |
Prof. Moshe Zimmermann | Jerusalem |
Michal Zweig | Herzelia |